Wednesday, March 30, 2011

CUSTOMS AND TRADITION

Much as i appreciate the existence of several cultural beliefs,i tend to fail understanding and interpreting customs and traditions.Looking at the words from various dictionaries,i just force myself to go according the way they are expressed and i have my own reservations,I partially disagree with many interpretations.Much of my arguement on this will follow since the aim of blog is discussing my trip to the lower Shire district of Chikhwawa/Chikwawa which ever you like according to where you belong politically and/or culturally.It was on this very sunday the march 27th,2011.As one of the elders in our clan(one is saying aah),i was sent to co-preside over a case involving my cousin and his so called wife who happens to come from that side of the country.On the mentioned date,whilst just waking up from previous night slumber,i received a phone call at around 600hrs from KK informing me that he is already in central town Blantyre waiting for me as previously arranged and aggreed.He did not know that i was still in Mulanje brushing my teeth getting prepared for the trip(how time flies when you are having nice nightmares).In the next two hours i was busy with the brake pedal going down heights of sena land,thanks to MN 1648 for keeping the promise.We went to the area where we were looking for a man to guide us to our destination and on our way we found some guys in jovial mood singing and with branches of shrubs on their heads pointing to a specific direction.We were suprised why they were showing us the direction as if they know where we were going and coincidentary in the process of asking for the residence of atchifi(a well known man believed to have full stocks of curry weed),who is a neighbor to our would be guide,we were told they thought we were going to a development meeting(tree planting) led by the minister of energy and mining who also happens to be the MP for the area just a few metres to where we were going.My cousin got married to a lady from this area.According to their tradition,there are several steps which are to be followed for one to get a she from their motherland which include money changing hands into theirs.I will not mention the terms used because they are many and they just tend to confuse the already confused characters.My cousin was and still is on separation with this better half of his for almost six months now